Coming Home
by Lizzie Weasley
Summary: Ron has always heard the saying "Home is where the heart is" but never really understood it. But now after a year of beingaway from the one he loves he finally understands. Especially when she comes back. Better than it sounds. RH


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(A/N) Hey everyone! It's Lizzie. You know it's funny because I say that at the beginning of every A/N. Hmmm… Oh well. So anyway I made a new fic as you can clearly see. It's another fluffy sweet R/H fic. There's no mention of any other ship by the way, just pure R/H all the way so it's open to all other shippers as well. Well except for maybe D/H or H/H. Hehe. Well this fic follows the theme "Home is where the heart is". It'll be really cute. Well at least I think so. It should be anyway because I worked hard on it. But then again I'm also writing another fic as well so it may not be as good as it could be. Oh well here it is anyway. Well later I guess…

Love from Lizzie

(Disclaimer) No, if I owned Harry Potter it would be _way_ screwed up. Ron and Hermione would have got together a LONG time ago, Voldemort would be going to counselling to straighten out his problems, and you all would have never even heard of it because no one would ever want to publish it because I would have screwed it all up.

Coming Home

Ron lay his head down on the back of the couch and listened to the sound of the rain pouring outside the window. Steady clicking of the grandfather clock in the corner was shaking the very thoughts from his mind. With every swing from the brass pendulum he couldn't help but picture the faces on the clock hands. All of the Weasley children and his mum and dad gleamed back at him along with two other faces previously added just last year. First there was Harry's face beaming at all the faces around him through his round spectacles. Then just below Harry's dark head of hair there sat the one face he couldn't stop staring at. Her chocolate brown eyes dug into his soul and her smile melted away all the horrid worries from his mind; Hermione's face was smiling back at him.

Presently, all the smiling faces pointed to a dot labelled "home" with the exception of four of them; Charlie, Fred ,and George's faces were all pointed at "work" and Hermione's face seemed to be permanently stuck on "travelling". Not once since Ron had got home from his last year of school had it moved, but he knew that after a year of travelling she had to have made it home by then. Whatever it was that kept Hermione's hand from moving though didn't matter; Mrs. Weasley would refuse to remove it anyway.

Ron knew that right about now Hermione was probably sitting out on a beach listening to the ocean and letting the wind flow through her messy brown hair. At least that's where she said she'd be going when she said she made it to her aunt and uncle's home in America. That was before she left him alone- left him to watch the love of his life disappear forever.

Ever since he had got back from Hogwarts for his last and final year at Hogwarts and he found that Hermione would be gone forever, all he could do was sit around doing nothing all day long. Even with Harry around to keep him company, he couldn't help but think of what he had lost. It's funny how the brain work. You never seem to appreciate anything until it's gone or just beyond your grasp. And what was gone from him now was the one thing he always wanted but never tried to get; he had lost Hermione.

As he lay and stared at Hermione's face he couldn't help but remember the one chance he ever had to tell her how he felt.

It had all started the afternoon after their last day at Hogwarts. He and Hermione were seated in the Head Boy and Girl compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Neither one of them had spoken all through the trip; it was as though they felt that the longer they prolonged conversation, the longer it would take to finally say good-bye. It wasn't until a voice came of the loud speaker that either one of them even attempted to talk.

"Attention, students. The train will be arriving at Platform 9 ¾ in about fifteen minutes."

"We this is it." Hermione sighed and looked up at Ron with hopeful eager eyes. "This is good-bye, I guess."

"Yeah," Ron sighed in return. He was always such a whiz with words.

"So…"

Hermione started to pull on a loose thread on the seat and Ron watched her intently.

"Do you think we'll ever be together again, Ron? I mean you, me, and Harry." She never once shifted her eyes away from the thread.

Ron studied her face intently trying to find exactly where she was going with this. "Well yeah!" he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We'll always be together. Why shouldn't we be?"

"Ron, do you really believe we'll _always_ be together?"

"Yeah I do!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head pityingly. The way her hair moved like that made him want more than anything else just to bury his face in it. He wondered what it would feel like against his cheeks.

"Ron, don't you realise that we'll all be going separate ways soon. We might never be together again," she said looking down at her fingernails.

Something was up she always picked at her fingernails like that if something was wrong. He scooted over next to her and placed his hands on top of her to stop her from destroying her nails anymore than they already were. She looked up at his hand on her own then up into his blue eyes her mouth hanging open.

"Where are we going with this talk?" Ron asked her. She shook her head roughly then seemed to come out of a trance.

"Oh," she whispered as she looked down at their hands again. All at once her lip began to tremble and her eyes clouded with tears. "Oh, Ron!" she called out before she threw her arms around his neck. "I'm going to miss you so much!"

"What are you talking about?" Ron laughed nervously patting her slowly on her back. "You'll be seeing me again in a couple of days at the Burrow, won't you?"

This only seemed to make matters worse. She cried louder and harder than he had ever seen her cry before and that was saying something. She buried her face deep in his chest making him feel far beyond ease anymore. She was much too close for his standard of comfort.

"Well aren't you?" His voice cracked.

Hermione sat up and stared into his eyes with her own puffy red ones and sniffled back a sob.

"No," she hiccuped with an added squeak.

"No?"

"No."

"Well bloody hell why not?!" Ron yelled starting to feel quite irrational at the moment.

Hermione couldn't seem to be able to stop hiccuping to get a straight answer out. Ron's heart melted and he felt like upright kissing her right then and there. She was beautiful even though she was crying; how could that be? Instead of blowing up again he cupped her face in his hands and wiped away a stray tear on her cheek with his thumb. She stared up at him with blood shot eyes that only seemed to make the chocolate centre even darker.

"You can tell me, you know, Hermione? I wont blow up at you again. I promise." Ron looked at her face and saw she did infact seem to calm with his words. She was still hiccuping a bit but she was able to smile in thanks and nod in agreement.

"Ron, I-I didn't- want to- tell you- and Harry- but- I'm going- back home," she managed to stutter.

"Well you could have told us, Hermione. I mean we already knew that!" Ron said thickly with a sarcastic wink from his eyes. Hermione didn't smile like she usually did nor did she seem mad or annoyed. Instead she just looked sad and upset.

"No, I mean back to America, where my mum is from," Hermione said looking in Ron's eyes with gloomy brown ones. Ron's mouth dropped in shock then he shook his head in disbelief and started to laugh out loud in nervousness.

"You're only kidding right?" he laughed trying to look into Hermione's eyes waiting for her to start laughing with her or even jump up and call "April fools!". But he hadn't been expecting for her to say what she was about to say.

"We're moving there to stay."

Ron blinked his eyes very rapidly trying his best to wake up from this horrible nightmare. It didn't happen.

Ron had already been beaten down enough when she continued on. "My grandmother had been wanting for us to move near her in America for the longest of times, but my mum would object and refused to move until I finished school. Besides they never could find a job down there anyway. Well now that I'm finished, my grandmother took matters into her own hands and found my parents jobs inside town and a house for us to stay in. Well naturally Mum wanted to go, and Dad agreed as well. Now… I have to go with them."

She looked down at her fingernails again and started to rip them apart once more. There was a depressing tremble in her lips still and tears seem to keep steadily trickling down her cheeks.

"But I don't want to go, Ron! Really I don't!"

She threw her arms around Ron's neck again and Ron started to rub her carelessly on her back. he hoped that somehow he was making her feel at least somewhat better; all he knew was that he felt totally and completely awful. Was he missing something here?

A few minutes more Hermione stayed buried in Ron's chest and Ron was absentmindedly fiddling with a piece of Hermione's long brown hair and then the train came to a sudden halt and the students started passing by their window one by one. Hermione then stood up from her seat and pulled Crookshanks wicker basket down from the luggage rack along with her school trunk. Ron still in awe remained seated just staring at her the entire time , still in shock of what had just taken place before himself. Adjusting Crookshanks in her arms, Hermione looked up at him and gave a small shaken smile.

"Well…" she sighed, Ron's eyes still digging into her own. "I guess I'll be going. I promised Mum and Dad I'd be at Platform 5 as soon as I got here," she muttered staring intently at her hands again.

"Oh," Ron mumbled under his breath still looking at her blankly.

"Well I guess this is good-bye," she sighed then and picked up her trunk. She looked at Ron sadly who still hadn't moved. A tear rolled down her cheek and she turned towards the door.

Her hand had just reached out for it when all of a sudden she turned right around and dropped her trunk and Crookshanks to the floor with a thud and a loud hiss and spitting. She rushed back over to him and kissed him dead on the lips . he received the shock of his life those five seconds. Through this whole trip nothing had startled him more than that five second kiss given to him by his best friend. He had never quite got what he and Hermione truly were; he always knew they were more than friends but what he was unaware. But at that moment her lips touched his own he realised… he liked it. He enjoyed being kissed by Hermione, his best friend. Infact he liked it so much that if he felt liked this every time he kissed one of his friends, he'd upright kiss Harry the next time he'd see him.

When she had let go of him and he was able to breath properly again she stared down at him and smiled.

"Good-bye, Ron," she whispered the walked away leaving him still sitting where he was, yet now even more confused than before.

That had been the last time he had seen her. And now another entire year later, nothing had changed. He still loved her with all his heart, and he thought about her at every spare moment of his life. She was all he ever wanted and all he ever had.

Ron looked outside his window as the thunder rolled through the black clouds overhead. "Where ever you are, Hermione, I hope the sun's shining down on you," Ron whispered to the picture on the old grandfather clock. But as he watched it he realised that something was different. Hermione's hand was no longer pointed to "travelling" but instead rested right beside Ginny's, directly pointed on "home". Maybe it hadn't jammed after all.

Another flash of lightening was followed by another roll of thunder. What am I going to do with myself? Ron said subconsciously. What am I going to do without Hermione?

Ron stared back out at the storm swirling outside. It was starting to get really bad out there. With the next flash of lightening Ron's heart fell into his stomach. It wasn't the flash of electricity that had scared him so badly nor was it the crash of thunder following it. The light had lit up the sky as bright as day and there in the middle of the front yard stood a figure in the middle of the storm.

Ron tore from his couch and raced to the door. Just as he went to throw open the door handle he stopped- someone was knocking. He calmed himself down a bit then slowly and carefully he cracked it open. He felt his heart that was already in his stomach rip from his body and fell flat on the floor in front of him. There stood on his doorstep, soaking wet from the pouring rain, was none other than Hermione Granger.

"H-Her-Hermione?" Ron stuttered not believing what was before his eyes. She smiled up at him but he could hardly breath correctly much less smile in return.

"Can I, erm, come in?" Hermione asked shivering in the doorway.

Ron seemed to snap back into his senses. "Oh! Yeah sure, come in! Here, let me help you." He took off her rain jacket and grabbed a throw cover off of the couch to wrap around her. She looked so different than what he could remember. Her hair was shorter, at least up to her shoulders, but you could still see her beautiful waves through the clinging, soaked clumps. Her eyes were shining and bright, not like the last time he had seen them when they were red from crying. And her figure had definitely changed which in Ron's opinion was a bit of an improvement. She wasn't the little girl he had grown up with anymore. The only thing that had actually stayed the same was that funny feeling in the pit of his stomach when he looked at her, and her shining smile that melted his heart every time she looked his way. She was gorgeous; she always would and always would be. No, that wouldn't be changing anytime soon.

"You look so _different_!" Hermione laughed fingering a piece of Ron's red hair. Ron laughed nervously along with her. "You're not a little boy anymore."

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing about you." She blushed at his words and he could feel his ears prickling with redness as well. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

"Yeah I guess I _have_ changed a bit," Hermione laughed. "Yeah, I do kind of look a bit different and I'm a bit more outspoken than I used to be. But it's hard not to change when you're living with Americans for an entire year." She smiled up at him and then looked down at her hands. "But I haven't changed on the inside and I guess that's what _really_ counts, right?"

She laughed that sweet laugh again and Ron let it run over him like rain. He hadn't realised he had missed it so much and now that he had it again he wished she'd _never_ stop laughing. It was like seeing an ocean after a three year trip to the desert- you didn't realise you'd miss it so much until it was gone.

"Yeah that _is_ all that matters," Ron smiled and a full wave of flush rushed to his cheeks once more. He shook his head vigorously trying to ward off the redness from seeping into his face as well. He hadn't meant to say that either. Well, at least not out loud.

"So, er, what brings you here?" Ron asked trying to hurriedly change the subject.

By the look on Hermione's face that was the wrong question to ask. All of a sudden she seemed to tense up and she bit he bottom lip. Then she gazed down at her nails as if she suddenly wanted to tear them apart.

"Well…" she started and began to clean them out with the other hand. "I never really wanted to leave Britain to begin with. And so now that I'm nineteen and I'm out on my own I've decided to come back." She had now started to chew her nails like she was dying of starvation and found no other means of food. The realising what she was doing dropped her hand and instead bit her lip. There was something else she needed to say. What was she hiding?

"But won't you miss your family and friends back at home?" he urged on.

Surprisingly enough she laughed.

"Sure I'll miss them," she said rolling her eyes and the began to tear off her index fingernail. "But that was never my home."

"So, you came back to England because it was always your home?"

"No, I came back to the Burrow because it was always my home."

Ron gazed at her curiously. "You mean to tell me, you came all the way across the ocean to come back to the Burrow?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Ron continued to stare accusingly into her eyes. There was still something she wasn't saying. "But I don't get it. The Burrow?"

Hermione sighed and tore at her nails again while she bit at her lip. She looked up at Ron with those tempting brown eyes and placed her hand on his knee. Ron's eyes grew wide, but said nothing. Maybe that was because he could from the uncomfortable feeling growing inside his stomach, but nevertheless he stayed silent.

"Ron, listen. Do you know why I'm so drenched if I only Apparated here?"

Ron looked from Hermione's hand still on his leg up to Hermione's eyes and shook his head.

"It's because I was contemplating weither or not I should actually be here. I was so scared you'd forgotten about me, or didn't want me around, or-"

Ron placed his hand to her mouth and she stopped immediately looking at him muddled.

"Hermione, why in the world would you think that? You know you can always come here."

He dropped his hands back to his lap and she tore her middle nail off and sighed.

"I know," she whispered.

"Then why did you think that?"

She sighed again. "I guess I was just nervous about coming back here after so long. Seeing your mum and dad, your brothers, Ginny, Harry, and, well,…you." Ron gulped loud.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is…" She stopped and breathed in deeply. "You have something that's mine and I want it back!"

Ron looked up at her and felt a flood of relief when he saw she was smiling.

"What?!" he laughed, looking in her eyes for some sort of explanation. She couldn't have come all the way across the Atlantic Ocean just to get something back. They could have sent it to her through Owl post.

"Well, you see, everyone always says 'home is where the heart is' and I've found that to be terribly true. You see, my heart never made it across the ocean with me when I left. It stayed here all this time…with you."

Ron eyes grew wide with shock and he took notice now more than before that Hermione's hand was still on his knee.

"I-I-I-I don't understand," Ron stammered. He _had_ to have heard something wrong. His mind had to be playing some sort of trick on him or something.

"You heard me right, Ron." Hermione nodded. "You stole my heart and I was wondering that if you didn't want it anymore, if I could have it back."

Ron's jaw dropped and he felt his heart stop all together in his chest. He even had to remind himself to breath before he suffocated.

"W-what?" he sputtered.

Hermione smiled at him flirtatiously and pushed a piece of his hair behind his ear. "You always were so cute when you were confused."

With those last few words she leaned forward and took the last breath from his chest. Ron was quite positive at this point that if he looked down he'd have seen that his heart had fallen from his chest. He felt himself being lifted from his feet and soaring through the sky, just he and Hermione, together like this. He knew that if he never let go he could live like this forever in this gorgeous dream land of eternal bliss and he promised never to let go of that. He swore to himself that he'd never let go of Hermione _ever _again. He too then realised that after an entire year of her being gone, _he_ was also once again truly home.

She looked up at them with he smiling chocolate brown eyes again before she placed her head cuddled into Ron' chest. He breathed in the scent of her and held her tighter than ever.

"You know," he whispered twirling a piece of her hair around her finger. "I think I'll keep your heart for a bit longer. That is unless you want to give me my heart back; it's been in your pocket ever since I've first met you."

She giggled sweetly and he rest his chin down on her back and whispered next to her ear, "Welcome home, Hermione. You're here to stay."

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(A/N) Well there you have it! Yet another one of my brilliant works! Lol. Yeah right. I think it was alright though. Maybe not one of my better works but it was okay. I was so tickled with the parts I included about Ron's nervousness of Hermione hand on his knee and he was getting a bit 'nervous' if you know what I'm saying. I just HAD to put that. I know I' such a naughty, naughty girl. Well I hope you like it anyway. I enjoyed writing it. So have a Happy Summer Break! My Birthday is June 25 so ya'll don't forget that. Lol, just kidding. Well anyhoo I got to go. Until next time…

Love from Lizzie


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